Really interesting interview with Friedel here - pretty clear criticism about lack of support from Revs management. Management and staff didn't back him up as far as setting rules/discipline for players, making personnel changes. Biggest point, I think, is that after a pretty good first half season putting his system in place, Revs wouldn't let him move or bench players who weren't willing to get with the program. Have to say, a lot of it makes sense based on the whole management change since and the good start for Friedel followed by the slow, then rapid collapse of the team. Def worth a listen: https://www.modernsoccercoach.com/post/brad-friedel-live-interview
It is his defense for his failure, and it underscores a very important reason why he failed. To Friedel, the fault was always someone else's and the suggestion that he bore responsibility for how the team played is one he refuses to consider. Instead of doing the best he could with the talent he had, and allow 1-2 years to build to his own vision, he damned all those around him. A great goalkeeper. An awful manager.
That was my immediate thought, also. While it could well be accurate, it was an easy straw to grasp, given the history. It seemed to me that his players almost all didn't want to play for him -- I'm not sure the management support thing can explain that (and why under an interim manager they seemed to all recover from their pulled "give-a-shit" muscles).
He did come into an awful mess, which is not an excuse, just a reality. He brought in a dramatically different system and different attitude, that was doubtless very demanding on the players. I think if most of us were being honest, back at that point in time we agreed that all that was necessary. But, if you are going to make those kind of changes and demands, I think Friedel is totally correct that you have to have management's backing. If not, everything is undermined. And, we saw exactly what happens then - in dramatic fashion. In the interview, he says that only a very few players weren't willing to commit to his plan and he wanted to move them. When management says no (and, in fact, won't let him bench them either), they are left in place to spread discontent through the rest of the squad - and to my eyes, you could clearly see that happening. In a lot of games you'd see some players working their butts off and others acting like they couldn't care less. Pretty soon the guys who do care, give up - realizing that a coaching change is the only way out of the mess. A lot of fans never really liked Friedel, seeing him as arrogant. That's fine; I never saw him like that - I liked his confident, take-charge attitude and his determination to bring big changes. I could care less what he said in his post-game interviews, that's not what I buy tickets for. I think the writing on the wall is pretty clear with everything that's happened and been said since the Arena era began (see actions/statements from Kelyn Rowe, Shalrie Joseph, TT, etc.). Mike Burns created a dysfunctional organization that undermined three consecutive coaches.
One more thought on this: thinking more on what Friedel says, it paints a whole different picture on the Nguyen episode. We always wondered and criticized the Revs for letting LN's trade request linger and not dealing him when they could get full value. He ended up staying around the squad for a long time before they eventually did make an extremely vindictive-looking deal. In retrospect, it now looks obvious that this was the biggest example of the coaching/front-office fracture. Friedel wanted him moved and Burns said no. Obvious, no?
Friedel, being the humble and down to earth guy who always pragmatically tried to produce the best possible team on the field, no matter how burdened he was by all those people around him, below him, above him who mucked up the joint, was well on his way to producing a masterpiece in patient development of a team for the future ... until he was so unfairly cast aside and we were all forced to see the team stagger on in failure and shame under the malign influence of Kraft's appointee to replace Burns. Even so, in the brief Golden Era where Brad graced us with his brilliant mind and visionary intuition, we were shown glimpses of a kind of greatness putzes like Heaps and Nicols could only dream of dreaming of.... Got it.
LN was eventually moved (long before Brad was fired). So is it a case of Burns saying no, then changing his mind? Or is it a case of Burns being so bad at his job that it took him a long time to trade LN? I think the latter is far more likely.
Friedel was terrible. He lost the team and couldnt turn around the LN deal either. I wonder now that if LN had hung on, for what ever reason, could Arena have made him happy? Now hes in Miami that is signing players left and right, and I dont see him being important to them. He certainly could have been important here had he stayed.
It looks to me like Burns said no, Friedel tried again, Burns said no, rinse-and-repeat, until Burns finally woke up and realized that he HAD to do something. At that point, they could only get pennies on the dollar and the situation had been left to fester and spread discontent through the roster (and left Friedel looking weakened in front of his players). I'm not saying that Friedel was brilliant, but he did have the Revs on a good path initially. The question here is what happened - and I think that what Friedel says in the interview, that team management didn't support him, makes a ton of sense. Nguyen, as talented as he was, didn't fit what Friedel wanted to do - and didn't really have the physical strength to fit that system. One of the things Friedel implemented well was a much quicker counter-attack - and for all the time Nguyen was here, he slowed the attack (sometimes for good effect, for sure). I think Arena could find a way to use him and I'm sure Nguyen would be happier playing for Arena, but I still don't think it would work very well. Our attack now is quick, aggressive and direct - not the way Nguyen plays. We have our new Nguyen in Gil - and the comparison is very easy to see. They are similar physically and even skill-wise, but Gil plays with an urgency to get the ball into the attack that Nguyen never did. He avoids getting fouled by moving the ball quicker, playing through physical challenges and playing better positionally, while Nguyen looked to draw fouls, which only succeeded it grinding our attacks to a halt.
It's a bit of both. I'm sue Freidel had different ideas and knew that Nguyen wasn't going to be a good fit, so he wanted to move him. Burns wasn't able to or didn't want to move him -- for the wrong reasons, such as not being confident he could get a good player to replace him and that he was the "face" of the franchise to a certain extent. There were lots of good players who became available during the "Nguyen-tr of discontent," and we could have probably picked up someone at least pretty decent. Freidel is probably correct that the FO was useless and incompetent, but he was equally useless and incompetent. The one thing I am really glad about is that we don't have to have the same discussions over and over again on just how useless and incompetent our coach and FO are.
I have found it generally true that if you are going to be an arrogant jerk, you had best be able to back it up. Because if you don't succeed people will turn on you The Bruce is also known for being arrogant but his teams (generally) win
I've never found Friedel to be arrogant. I think he came in very confident, with a plan and determination to do things his way. If that's arrogance, ...
Well, there's a fine line between the two... If you come across as "very confident" in your point of view and dismiss suggestions or input or any idea that isn't your own, as the Good Doctor says, you'd better be able to deliver. For Friedel, it worked for a while, but over time he lost the team. Right or wrong, it's never a good thing when the players have tuned out the coach, for whatever reason. A good manager recognizes when he's at the point where he may start losing the locker room, and makes adjustments to make sure that doesn't happen. From what I can tell, Friedel doubled-down on his "my way or the highway" approach. Sometimes you can be "right" about something and still be wrong.
He never accepted any fault or blame for poor results and was quick to blame his players. He was the definition of arrogance, IMO.
Two things that stood out to me from this was 1. Friedel was not willing to change his plan based on his players abilities. He lacked vision and creativity to make a game plan based on what he had to work with. You don't go to a team like new england working for a guy with a reputation like Burns and expect that he will bring in players to suit your needs. Also bringing the EPL mentality to MLS was never going to work. Saying things like the players were never forced to listen, Burns did not have his back etc.. yet it seemed that he was still trying to force things down the players throats which will never bode well for the coach. 2. No matter who the coach was Burns was always going to be a thorn in the side of progress.
I spoke to multiple sources to give you an inside look at Brad Friedel’s time in charge of the #NERevs https://t.co/z5phW5qpzY pic.twitter.com/kSqTm18oed— Seth (@SethMan31) July 30, 2020
Good piece by TBM. I retweeted it with the following comment: "Really good piece here. I’m wondering if he had tried to make small changes once at a time, if it might have worked. Trying to instill everything at once backfired."
There's certainly a fair amount of criticism due for Friedel, but he is far from alone in that. The front-office didn't back him up and the players should have been more professional, sucked it up and did things the way the coach wanted. A great example about the players from Boston being late because of practice. In what world is that a legitimate excuse for a hard deadline? Belichick is famous for rejecting a snowstorm excuse for arriving late. It's very easy for anyone to delude themselves that something is out of their control, when often it is just a matter of failure to plan properly.
Not the same thing. Belichick warned his players the day before that a snow storm was coming and that they needed to plan accordingly to be on time. A car accident blocking traffic is not predictable. Do you show up for work an hour early every day just in case there is a car accident?
In retrospect, red flags should have been raised when towards the end of the 2018 season, when Friedel promised big changes, and then days later, Burns said there wouldn't be much turnover.
Well, it doesn't do any good to get rid of half your roster if the front office lacks the ability to replace that many players. Just my opinion, but I think this comes down to Burns' incompetence more than it does his desire to support his hand-picked coach.
Our sources indicated that Friedel lost the locker room by the summer of his first season My bold - Ouch!
IMHO I think Friedel is angling for another chance to coach and he is doing the PR tour, blaming his inability to get results on the front office. Good luck to him, but I wouldn't hire him.